Andrew Lapin

After a career often spent in roles of kind caretakers, Octavia Spencer sinks her teeth into the part of a woman who draws a group of teenagers into her basement.

Shirley Jackson's novel is "a Gothic psychodrama that eats itself from the inside." But this adaptation proves too low-key and repetitive to build suspense and succeeds only in testing patience.

Amy Poehler directs and stars in this Netflix film that, while light on laughs and conflict, delivers a "cozy reunion happy hour and an ode to female friendships."

Zac Efron stars as the serial killer in a film that chooses not to linger on the lurid brutality of his crimes, but to explore the sinister charisma that made them possible.

Laura Dern and Kristin Stewart star in the real-life tale of a frustrated author who created a false identity that captivated the literary world.

The film spotlights the Satanic Temple, an organization that stages wry publicity stunts to underscore the separation of church and state. The doc "makes for an electric modern theological debate."

Hugo's novel tops Amazon's best-seller list in France, following Monday's fire that ravaged the cathedral. The 19th century story was a campaign to get the cathedral restored.

Victor Hugo wrote Notre Dame de Paris, or The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in the 19th century to draw attention to the cathedral, which had fallen into neglect and disrepair. It worked.

Director Claire Denis' first English-language film — an elliptical, existential and bluntly sexual tale — takes place on a spaceship full of convicts speeding toward oblivion.

This introspective (and occasionally downright lethargic) existential whodunit starring Patricia Clarkson and a cast of ringers is based on the Martin Amis novel Night Train.

A cis male critic and a trans female critic discuss the controversial Belgian film, coming soon to Netflix, about a young transgender ballet dancer.

This Italian documentary loosely, and very gently, profiles the mysterious author Elena Ferrante, and her international fanbase, in an effort to celebrate, not expose.

A bored-seeming Matt Smith plays the famous — and famously provocative — photographer in a plodding film that too-dutifully ticks familiar scenes off the Great Artist Biopic checklist.

Critic Andrew Lapin reviews the 10 short films nominated in the live-action and documentary categories this year, and offers his picks for both what will — and what should -- win.

Four of the five animated-short nominees this year are weepy tales of parent-child relationships; critic Andrew Lapin reviews them all, and picks his favorite.

When it focuses on 13-year-old Chengxi (Joseph Huang), this "shaggy-but-lovable" Taiwanese film now on Netflix dutifully tugs the heartstrings.

Jean-Luc Godard's digressive film grapples with societal collapse through footage that has been distorted and reshuffled, hypersaturated or bleached of all color, until it is just barely recognizable.

The debut feature from Melissa B. Miller strains to endear itself to viewers — and some performances succeed. But the characters lack personality and the drama any conflict.

Two cowboys who left Singapore for the American West return home to avenge the death of their father in this giddy, fast-paced B-movie.

Robert Zemeckis adapts a gripping documentary about one trauma survivor's low-fi art project; the result is a "bloated and lifeless" drama that trivializes his experience.